


That Look In Your Eyes Is So Familiar

by Krasimer



Series: Don't Take My Sunshine Away [5]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia!Jack, Amnesiac Soldier: 76, Angst, Brief mentions of McHanzo, Gabriel Being Gabriel, Going to save Jack from his own sadness, Hearteyes, Hurt Gabriel, Jack Feels, Judges You in Spanish, Latino Character, M/M, Poor Jack, Redemption, Sadness, Spanish Speaking McCree, Taunting in Spanish, We're going AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7528177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I want to know who I was," his voice was wavering, unsure and almost hopeless. "I asked before, didn't follow through, but now I want to know. He was a good man and I want to be one. I am-" he swallowed nervously, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat beneath the fabric of his collar. "I'm afraid of waking up with a blank space in my mind again."</p><p>Gabriel could practically feel his heart breaking. "We'll get there," he said, the hand still in his pocket clenching almost tight enough to rip the fabric. "I promise we'll get there."</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Look In Your Eyes Is So Familiar

Gabriel sighed, meeting his own eyes in the mirror, pressing careful fingers to the line of his jaw, tracing the small wrinkles around his mouth.

God, he had actually aged.

Good.

He'd traded out his trenchcoat for something a bit more familiar, the warm fabric of his hoodie feeling almost like home. The outfit that Talon had fitted him with, it was fucking laughable. He'd always liked the black fabric and he could admit, with some coercion, that he was a little dramatic, but what the hell. An entirely black leather outfit with skulls all over it? He'd designed the mask, chosen figures from the stories he remembered his mamá telling him when he was young.

He hadn't chosen the clothing. 

The double rifles, that was all him, and he had always used them as his weapon of choice. A little bit of a wonder that no one had figured his identity out earlier. Especially McCree, the man had seen him charging into fights with one in each hand before. How he'd gotten away with it for this long he wasn't sure but he was willing to chalk it up as a milagro.

If they hadn't recognized him, it just meant that they'd never tried to fight him one-on-one to bring him home.

Soldier: 76 was an example of that, in a way. 

He'd been told about the recruitment of the vigilante, how he'd nearly taken one of the kid's heads off with a fucking pulse rocket. Lucío something, one of the younger ones, some kind of revolutionary figure and a music-maker. Apparently also a healer? He wasn't quite sure how that worked.

With one last glance in the mirror, tugging at his hood until it rested in the right place, Gabriel took a deep breath and left his room. 

It'd become his after a lot of debating between Winston and Angela. Angie had insisted that he needed a room, his own territory, for the sake of his healing. Winston had argued that it would be easier to monitor him if he were sleeping in the infirmary. When those particular words were out of the scientist's mouth, Gabriel had just raised his hands in surrender and stepped back about twenty feet. He remembered how Angie got when she was angry and the look in her eyes had been absolutely furious.

In the end, she had won the argument and Winston had stayed away from her for three days.

The door to the balcony that looked down on the sparring area was open when he walked past and he tilted his head, coming to a stop as he looked at it. With a shrug, he walked through, leaning against the railing to get a better view of what was happening.

Down below he could see Jesse, his hat and serape off for once. His stance was defensive, his chest heaving slightly as he turned with the movement of his partner. Walking in slow circles around him was the other Shimada boy, his prosthetic feet making barely a noise as he did. His arms were raised in preparation of a strike, his eyes searching for the best angle. 

"Ya gonna ever attack or am I just gonna have to come to ya?" Jesse taunted, the smug grin on his face visible even from thirty feet above him.

Gabriel cupped his hands around his mouth, nearly laughing out loud as he called down to them, "Jesse, deja de coquetear!"

In an instant, his spine locking into a tighter posture, Jesse whipped around to look up at him, his eyes wide and a slight flush on his face. "Gabe!" he hissed back, nearly shrieking when Shimada took advantage of the distraction to sweep a leg into his knees and knocking him to the floor, pinning him there once he was down.

"I have told you before," he smirked at the struggling cowboy, "Distractions are dangerous."

"Oh, what, I'm supposed to jus' let him yell that at me? Them's fighting words, Gabriel Reyes, y'hear me?!" Jesse squirmed, making a face when the other man didn't seem to be letting him up, his cheek squished against the floor. "Hey, Hanzo? Y'gonna let me up, darlin'?"

"Perhaps," the samurai's voice level, one of his eyebrows arched. "Are you going to stop being distracted when we spar?"

"...Y'know I can't promise that."

"Then you know I cannot promise you your freedom. You have asked me to help you with your hand-to-hand combat. I cannot teach an unwilling student."

Up on the balcony, Gabriel was snickering into his hand, one elbow propped on the railing. His laughter slowed and stopped when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He was starting to be able to recognize that jacket anywhere.

He almost hated the thing.

"I heard you were awake," 76's voice was just as gravelly as ever, his red gloves forever present to complete the absolute obscuring of every last inch of skin. His hands were curled around the railing like he was using it to balance himself as if he were unsteady on his feet. "I- Good."

"Yeah," Gabriel studied his mask, frowning at the visor and the red tint that hid the other man's eyes. "Why do you still wear that thing around the base?"

"...Habit." 

"Why the habit? Not like we're gonna get attacked on home field, cariño. We'd know the area too well, no enemy is going to even think about it."

76 turned his head towards Gabriel, seemed to be looking at him carefully before his hands tightened on the railing. When he said nothing, Gabriel frowned. Some echo of something, the last remaining remnant of what he had been before, hissed out a couple of angry words. 

"Do you want to know something?"

An inclined head told him to keep talking and he forced himself to grin. "I think McCree might be a little está loco por the new Shimada. He's been able to fight me before. Now, maybe his skills have gotten a little rusty, but I really fuckin' doubt that." Gabriel waved down towards where the Shimada, who looked up at them for a moment from his new position. He was sitting cross-legged on Jesse's back, ignoring the man's pleas for him to move. "I know for a fact that he could probably toss the samurai off of him if he wanted to."

"Then why doesn't he?" 76 grumbled. Despite the conversation, despite the location, he still stood like he was at attention. He still stood like a soldier, on guard at all times and ready to break into fighting if necessary. 

Gabriel would just have to fix that. 

"No sé," he shrugged, trying to get the meaning across. Jack, bless his fucking Indiana-raised heart, had never been all that good at Spanish. He doubted 76 being any better. "I think it's because he might be a little stupid for him, in a good way. It's good for him."

Silence reigned once more, an obvious air of confusion on the Soldier's part. "Why is his stupidity good?"

"Because it means he's finally figuring out what he wants in life. Him being stupid just means he's got fuckin' heart eyes for the man currently keeping him pinned to the mat," Gabriel laughed, turning around to lean his back against the railing, his elbows resting on it as well. His hands tucked into his pockets, he knew he looked like a somewhat older imitation of himself. 

Good.

Maybe it would help with what he had to do.

"What about you?" the lump suddenly in his throat was hard to speak around as he thought about his next question. "Got anyone you're stupid over?"

He didn't realize how gone he still was over the man in front of him until there was a shake of a grey-topped head, negating the possibility of the ghost of Jack Morrison having moved on. Didn't realize until he could breathe again how much he had been hoping for the answer to be anything but 'Yes'.

"If you refer to it that way," 76's hands were moving along the railing almost restlessly. "Do you have someone you're 'Stupid' over?"

Shit, interacting with him was always going to be heartbreaking, wasn't it?

Gabriel scoffed, a soft noise in the back of his throat. "Nah," he let himself slump slightly. "Not anymore. Used to," he didn't let himself look at 76, didn't let himself look over the hands and arms and body he had once known better than his own. "Used to."

Here he was, nearly sixty and still fucking pining. It was a little pathetic and he could have slapped himself for the wave of hope building in his chest.

Sol de Oro was gone.

Repeat repeat repeat, memorize until it stuck, don't let his heart get attached to him before he was back. There were no guarantees, no promises, and if he failed at bringing Jack home, there never would be.

He almost missed it when 76 moved again.

Careful hands removed the visor and mask, tired but aware eyes revealed slowly, a stubbled jaw and a nose that was only slightly more crooked than the one Gabriel remembered. He'd seen it before, remembered thinking the man in front of him was a ghost, but it was still different. It suited him, matched with the life he'd been living for nearly two decades now, but it still made his chest hurt to think about. The golden boy of Overwatch, the fresh-faced Jack Morrison, he never would have had a misset broken nose that had healed crooked. They would have wanted to keep him in perfect condition, keep up appearances even when the organization was falling to pieces around them. 

"Yeah?" he asked.

76 looked at the two pieces for a moment, his jaw working as he seemed to be puzzling over something. "Yes," he said hesitantly, curling a thumb over the mask, swiping a small smudge off of it. "You're right. This is supposed to be a safe place, I shouldn't need..."

His frown made Gabriel's chest go tight. 

"All up to you, cariño," his voice was nearly steady, almost made him proud of how in control he seemed to be in that moment. "If it makes you comfortable, then you go with that."

"Morrison wouldn't be so distrusting."

"...Well," Gabriel sighed, pulling a hand out of his pocket to scrub down his face. "That's true. But you're a little different, even when you're him in a way. You've got a bunch of stuff under your belt that he never had to deal with."

76 looked at him, studying him carefully. "I want to know who I was," his voice was wavering, unsure and almost hopeless. "I asked before, didn't follow through, but now I want to know. He was a good man and I want to be one. I am-" he swallowed nervously, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat beneath the fabric of his collar. "I'm afraid of waking up with a blank space in my mind again."

Gabriel could practically feel his heart breaking. "We'll get there," he said, the hand still in his pocket clenching almost tight enough to rip the fabric. "I promise we'll get there."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, they're both awake this time and actually talking!
> 
> Who wants to bet the peace won't last?
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway.  
> Thank you guys so much for the comments and everything on this story so far! I'm so happy that people are actually liking it.  
> The response I've been getting is awesome and as usual, I would love to hear from you! Even if you just want to yell about fandom and ships, you can always say hi to me at Krasimer or LookUponMyWorksYeMighty on tumblr.
> 
> EDIT: Goddamnit auto correct, I did not mean Coquet Pear. If my Spanish ever looks wrong to someone, please tell me.


End file.
